"One thing I have asked of the Lord, that shall I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in His temple." Psalm 27:4 (NASB)

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Let It Be

Maple Hill Cemetery - 05/16/2010

I've been captured by Pete Wilson's new book, Plan B. So much so that I based my teaching on it the last three weeks.

Have you read it? If not, you should. I wrote a review of it on my other blog here.

Sometimes stuff happens because of our own bad choices. Sometimes because others made bad choices. Sometimes a combination of both. And sometimes--just because.

And all we can control then is our response.

We can run.

Away from God. Into sleep or food or busyness or television or overeating or some kind of addiction. Or into the arms of the wrong people.

Or toward God. Fling ourselves straight into His arms.

We can grab the reins.

Try to take control. Make a plan. Manipulate. Try harder. Help God out.

Or we can give up control. Sit in His lap.

And wait.

Yes, wait. And rest. And trust His timing.

We can ride it out.

Hang on tight to the "stuff." Stuff it. Wallow in disappointment. Let bitterness take root and give birth to depression and anger.

Or we can let it go. Confess our failure. Accept the consequences. Forgive. Others. Ourselves. Surrender to God's plan.

We can let it be.

Like Mary. "Let it be done to me according to what you have said." (Luke 1:38 - Amplified)

Not my will but Yours.

Not my plan or my dream or my expectations.

Because everything that comes to us is either by God's hand or is filtered through His fingers. To conform us. To change us into His image.

And when life seems out of control, it really isn't. But God IS. In all. Over all.

Pete says, "When life doesn't turn out the way you thought it was going to turn out, you may think you're losing control. But the truth is, you never had control in the first place."

He says, "The greatest of all illusions is the illusion of control."

God takes all of our failures, all of our twisted and broken plans and dreams, and weaves them into His beautiful and perfect plan.

I played the Beatles' song, "Let It Be" for my class yesterday. I didn't realize that Paul McCartney wrote that song during a stressful time in his own life. Based on a dream he had that his mother visited him and told him that everything was going to be okay--to "let it be." You see, his mother's name was Mary. She apparently was a nurse, a midwife, and she died suddenly from breast cancer when Paul was only 14.

A Plan B.

He sang the song at his wife Linda's funeral. And again at a 911 benefit. He was in a plane on the runway at JFK that day and watched the towers burn and crumble.

There's hope in the darkness. Hope in the brokenness. Hope when everything in life goes up in flames or comes crashing down.

I could literally visualize this phrase "Because everything that comes to us is either by God's hand or is filtered through His fingers." And of course always need to be reminded that all we go through is "To conform us. To change us into His image."

Recently I won a copy of Plan B. I have not finished reading it yet but already it has been life changing.